Wiping Member and Washing Article

ABSTRACT

A wiping member and washing article is disclosed that can remove dirt thinly spread over the surface to be cleaned while holding the ability to remove bulky solid dirt. The wiping member comprises a flat yarn and a fiber yarn. The flat yarn and fiber yarn are knitted together to form alternating separate loops of flat yarn and fiber yarn.

BACKGROUND

This invention relates to wiping members. Particularly, the present invention relates to wiping members used for washing or polishing surfaces.

Products comprising a wiping member made by knitting or weaving flat yarn made of plastic film or flat metal yarn prepared by metalization of plastic film are well known products. Such products can be shaped into a bag and urethane sponge or the like enclosed in the bag. Such washing articles are superior in performance to remove bulky solid dirt because they have a knitted cloth having in its surface many bent parts of film and when the bent parts meet with dirt at certain angles, the articles can scratch or scrape away the dirt by virtue of the shape and stiffness of the film.

However, such wiping articles do not have enough contact area with the surface of an object to be cleaned and, therefore, they are not very effective in removal of dirt spread thinly on the surface of an object to be cleaned, like oil film. On the other hand, many wiping articles are also known in which acrylic fibers or ultrafine fibers having a heteromorphous cross section, are used for the purpose of removing oil film or the like without using detergent. When such fibers are used alone, a high effect is shown for dirt like oil film, but there is a problem that it is impossible to efficiently scrub off bulky solid dirt such as burnt sludge or soap sludge.

Registered Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 3037459 discloses, as a wiping member including a combination of plastic film and yarn such as acrylic yarn, a scrubbing brush cloth produced by knitting worsted acrylic yarn around which flat yarn made of metalized plastic film has been wound spirally. Such a structure, however, can not exert a sufficient effect of scrubbing off dirt by the film because the film are wound parallel to the worsted acrylic yarn and, therefore, the film is prevented to meet dirt at effective angles.

As similar examples, wiping members are also commercially available, which comprise a bag made of knitted cloth composed of worsted polypropylene yarn and worsted acryl yarn knitted together alternately with flat yarn made of polyester film to form stripes and a sponge core enclosed in the bag. In a knitted cloth of such structure, however, polyester films are linearly and unevenly distributed. It therefore is inconvenient because of its anisotropic ability to remove dirt and is poor in efficiency to scrub off dirt.

SUMMARY

A wiping member and washing article that can remove dirt thinly spread over the surface to be cleaned while holding the ability to remove bulky solid dirt. In one embodiment, the present invention provides a wiping member comprising a flat yarn and a fiber yarn. The flat yarn and fiber yarn are knitted together to form alternating separate loops of flat yarn and fiber yarn.

In another embodiment, the present invention provides a washing article comprising a wiping member comprising a flat yarn and a fiber yarn, wherein the flat yarn and fiber yarn are knitted together to form alternating separate loops of flat yarn and fiber yarn. Further, an absorbent cleaning material is adjacent the wiping member.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is an enlarged photograph showing the structure of the surface of the wiping member obtained in Example 1;

FIG. 2 is an enlarged photograph showing the structure of the surface of the wiping member obtained in Example 2;

FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing appearance configuration of a commercially available washing article;

While the above-identified drawings and figures set forth embodiments of the invention, other embodiments are also contemplated, as noted in the discussion. In all cases, this disclosure presents the invention by way of representation and not limitation. It should be understood that numerous other modifications and embodiments can be devised by those skilled in the art, which fall within the scope and spirit of this invention. The figures may not be drawn to scale.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Knitted cloths originally are cloths produced by interlocking loops lengthwise or crosswise to form a plane by using series of yarn. The structure of a knitted cloth is constituted of a series of loops. Therefore, when a knitted cloth is composed of flexurally anisotropic yarn such as flat yarn made of plastic film, bent parts of the loops will project from a surface of the cloth at almost fixed angles (orientation) and will be arranged regularly.

In the preparation of such knitted cloth, when partly replacing the flat yarn made of plastic film by fiber yarn such as wet spun yarn made of acrylic fibers and uniformly knitting, plastic film loops and acrylic fiber loops are arranged regularly, for example, alternately stitch by stitch or every two or more stitches. This will make plastic film loops be arranged uniformly and regularly throughout a surface of the resulting knitted cloth and loops of acrylic fibers will be arranged with the same regularity between the loops of the plastic film.

When flat yarn made of plastic film is looped as mentioned above, front ends of the bent parts project from a surface of the cloth. Therefore, a knitted cloth produced by uniformly knitting flat yarn made of plastic film with spun yarn made of acrylic fibers having been partially wet spun will have in its surface plural bent parts of plastic film arranged uniformly and regularly throughout a surface of the cloth. The front ends of the bent parts will project from the surface of the cloth with an almost fixed angle.

“Uniformly knitting” means to produce a knitted cloth uniform as a whole by using two or more kinds of yarn equally. It is preferable to use the yarns in almost the same amount (length). As long as the wiping member of the present invention has the aforementioned arrangement of bent parts of flat yarn made of plastic film, the wiping member may further include yarn or fibers uniformly knitted together with the flat yarn of plastic film and the wet spun yarn made of acrylic fibers.

However, for example, knitted cloth produced by interknitting knitted cloths each produced by knitting different types of yarn, which is not uniform throughout the cloth, does not correspond to the uniformly knitted cloth as referred to herein.

The manner of knitting of the knitted cloth is not particularly restricted if it is a knitting manner usually used in wiping members for use in washing or polishing tableware, pans, etc. in the kitchen or the like. Preferred is a knitting manner such that opening parts are formed between the bent parts of the flat yarn made of the plastic film and a surface of the knitted cloth. The presence of the opening parts makes it easy for the flat yarn to enter between an object to be cleaned and a dirt attaching thereon and, therefore, it becomes easy to separate them. In addition, it is possible to capture, in the openings, much dirt which has been separate. Thus, such a knitted cloth can maintain its good scrubbing performance.

In general, the manner of knitting of a knitted cloth is not particularly restricted as long as it is constituted of a series of loops. However, a knitted cloth with a high gauge can not have an enough size of opening parts in loop portions thereof. With increase in stitch density, the projecting direction of the film gets close to parallel with a surface to be cleaned and the knitted cloth and it becomes more difficult to obtain a wiping effect. On the other hand, when a knitted cloth with a low gauge is used in the form of bag containing therein a foam member, it tends to allow foreign matter to enter it, resulting in troubles with its use and also in hygiene problems. Although depending on the thickness of the yarn to be used, for example in the case of using a two-folded acrylic yarn of from 30 to 60 deniers, the number of stitches per square having 10-cm sides is typically from about 20 stitches by 20 rows to 100 stitches by 70 rows, more preferably from about 30 stitches by 30 rows to 65 stitches by 50 rows.

For the flat yarn, plastic film with a thickness of from 30 to 45 μm and a width of from 0.7 to 0.85 mm is typically used because an operation of scratching or scraping bulky solid dirt can be achieved by virtue of the stiffness of the film. As the material of the plastic film, polypropylene, polyester, polystyrene, and the like are used. In order to impart a design property or the like, it is also permitted to use flat metal yarn prepared by metalizing plastic film, or other multilayer film (for example, film comprising plastic layers sandwiching a metal layer therebetween) as flat yarn.

For forming spun yarn, wet spun acrylic fibers are used because acrylic fibers can easily remove oily dirt, and spun yarn can secure enough contact area with a surface to be cleaned. It is also permitted to use ultrafine fibers having a heteromorphous cross section by forming them into spun yarn.

The wiping member of the present invention can be used alone as a wiper or a washing article for tableware such as dishes and the like. It also can be used as a washing article for tableware such as dishes and the like when being shaped into a bag, followed by enclosing a foam member such as polyurethane sponge or the like or when being applied to a foam member.

The wiping member has a sufficient washing power for both bulky dirt and dirt like oil film because it is composed of a knitted or woven combination of flat yarn made of plastic film which can scrub bullky dirt effectively and yarn made of fibers, such as acryl, which exerts a washing power for dirt, like oil film, which can be scrubbed only when the washing article intimately comes into firm contact with the surface to be cleaned. In addition, because in the knitted or woven cloth, flat yarn of rigid plastic film comes into contact with the surface to be cleaned at a certain angle, the power applied during the wiping will be concentrated to a restricted part of dirt and can easily produce a start point for peeling the dirt from the surface to be cleaned.

The following examples further illustrate the present invention. These, however, are not to be construed as limiting the present invention to their details.

Although specific embodiments of this invention have been shown and described herein, it is understood that these embodiments are merely illustrative of the many possible specific arrangements that can be devised in application of the principles of the invention. Numerous and varied other arrangements can be devised in accordance with these principles by those of ordinary skill in the art without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Thus, the scope of the present invention should not be limited to the structures described in this application, but only by the structures described by the language of the claims and the equivalents of those structures.

EXAMPLES Example 1

Flat yarn made of 38-μm thick, slit PET film having a width of 0.7575 mm was combined, for reinforcement, with 100-denier PET yarn. This yarn group and 48-denier two-folded acrylic yarn were uniformly knitted by means of a circular knitting machine. Thus, a tubular knitted cloth was produced. This cloth was reversed so that its rear surface was exposed, yielding a wiping member.

FIG. 1 is an enlarged photograph showing the structure of the front surface of the resulting wiping member (namely, the rear surface of the knitted cloth). Loops of the flat yarn of PET film and loops of the acrylic spun yarn are located alternately at several millimeter intervals. When the resulting cloth is put on a surface to be cleaned in a manner like that in use in practical washing, the film surface comes into contact with the surface to be cleaned at an angle of about 45 degrees at its loop sections.

The so prepared wiping member was evaluated for its performance to remove a bulky dirt (soap sludge) and its performance to remove oil film together with the wiping members of Comparative Examples 1-3. The Comparative Examples are shown in Table 2 with their evaluation results.

In the evaluation, a wiping member containing water was solely applied to a stainless steel plate on which dirts had been attached. The wiping member was then held with a thumb so that a load of 0.7-0.8 kg was applied and was moved back and forth once to wipe the plate. After the wiping, the condition of the stainless steel plate was visually observed and was evaluated according to the criteria shown in Table 1.

TABLE 1 Indication ∘ Δ x Soap sludge Removal rate Removal rate Removal rate removal 70% or more 30 to 70% 30% or less Oil film removal No cloud remains — Cloud remains

The dirts used in the evaluation were prepared by the following methods:

Soap Sludge:

A dispersion of a fatty acid calcium powder in alcohol was applied uniformly to a stainless steel plate JIS G4305 (SUS 304)2B). After evaporation of the alcohol, the stainless steel plate was heated for about two minutes on a heated hotplate.

Oil Film:

A 1:1 mixture of salad oil and lard was applied thinly with paper towel to a stainless steel plate (JIS, G, 4305 (SUS304) BA).

Example 2

Flat yarn made of 38-μm thick aluminum-metalized PET film which had been slit to have a width of 0.7575 mm and 300-denier spun yarn made of about 0.3-denier heteromorphous cross section filaments of polyester and nylon were uniformly knitted by means of a circular knitting machine. Thus, a tubular knitted cloth was produced. This cloth was reversed so that its rear surface was exposed, yielding a wiping member.

FIG. 2 is an enlarged photograph showing the structure of the front surface of the resulting wiping member (namely, the rear surface of the knitted cloth). Groups of loops of PET film flat yarn and groups of loops of acrylic yarn are located alternately at several millimeter intervals. When the resulting cloth is put on a surface to be cleaned in a manner like that in use in practical washing, the film surface comes into contact with the surface to be cleaned at an angle of about 45 degrees at its loop sections.

The so prepared wiping member was evaluated for its performance to remove a bulky dirt (soap sludge) and its performance to remove oil film in the same manner as Example 1. The evaluation results are shown in Table 2.

TABLE 2 Evaluation criteria: Soap Oil Product name Constituent sludge film Example 1 Acrylic yarn, PET ∘ ∘ film Example 2 Spun yarn ∘ ∘ composed of filaments with a rectangular cross section Comparative “Acrylcloth S-015” Worsted acrylic x ∘ Example 1 made by LEC Co. yarn wound with aluminum-metalized PET film Comparative “Heart Home II Aluminum ∘ x Example 2 Alumicleaner” made metalized PET film by KIKULON CO., LTD. Comparative “Magical Net” made Worsted acrylic x ∘ Example 3 by Towa-JS Inc. yarn

The evaluation results show that in the Examples, both soap sludge and oil film were removed sufficiently. On the other hand, In the Comparative Examples, some scratch marks were produced in the surface of a soap sludge layer, but the layer was not removed sufficiently. As mentioned above, by use of the wiping member of the present invention, it is possible to remove both bulky solid dirt and dirt firmly adhering to the surface to be cleaned such as oil film.

Example 3

The tubular knitted cloth produced in Example 1 was shaped into a bag and a block of polyurethane sponge having a length of 140 mm, a width of 70 mm and a thickness of 20 mm was enclosed therein. Thus, a washing article was produced.

This article was damped with water and applied to a stainless steel plate on which dirts had been attached in the same manner as Example 1. It was manually moved back and forth once in the direction along the longer sides of the washing article, thereby wiping the dirts. Then, the condition of the stainless steel plate was observed visually and evaluated according to the criteria shown in Table 1.

Subsequently, the stainless steel plate with dirts was replaced by another one. To the surface of the replacement, a washing article damped with water was applied and manually moved back and forth one in the direction along the shorter sides of the washing article, thereby wiping the dirts. Then, the condition of the stainless steel plate was observed visually and evaluated according to the criteria shown in Table 1. The evaluation results are shown in Table 3.

Comparative Example 4

A commercially available washing article (“Magical Net Triple” made by Towa-JS Inc.) was prepared. FIG. 3 is a schematic view showing the appearance configuration of this washing article. The washing article had external dimensions the same as those of the washing article of Example 3. In the knitted cloth, worsted polypropylene knitted cloth 1 and worsted acryl knitted cloth 2 are knitted together alternately with aluminum-metalized polyester flat yarn 3 to form stripes. The performance of this washing article was evaluated in the same manner as Example 3. The evaluation results are shown in Table 3.

TABLE 3 Evaluation Soap sludge Oil film Longer Shorter Longer Shorter Product name Constituent side side side side Example 3 Acrylic yarn, ∘ ∘ ∘ ∘ PET film Comparative “Magical Net Worsted acrylic x Δ ∘ x Example 4 Triple” made yarn, Worsted by Towa-JS Inc. Polypropylene yarn, PET film

The washing article of Example 3 exerted excellent removing performance for two types of dirt regardless of the wiping direction. On the other hand, in use of the washing article of Comparative Example 4, when dirt was wiped in the direction along the shorter sides of the article, the dirt remained streakedly and therefore was not wiped away sufficiently. When dirt was wiped in the direction along the longer sides of the article, the amount of film effective for scrubbing was insufficient and therefore the dirt was not wiped away sufficiently.

In short, the washing article of the present invention exerts excellent removing performance for two types of dirt regardless of the wiping direction because film portions which will exhibit an effect in scrubbing and acrylic yarns effective in wiping oil film are distributed uniformly throughout the entire wiping surface. In other words, a high scrubbing power is probably derived from a structure in which loop portions of film appear successively and scrub dirt one after another. 

1. A wiping member comprising: a flat yarn; and a fiber yarn; wherein the flat yarn and fiber yarn are knitted together to form alternate separate loops of flat yarn and fiber yarn.
 2. The wiping member of claim 1, wherein the flat yarn loop and the fiber yarn loop are arranged alternately stitch by stitch.
 3. The wiping member of claim 1, wherein the flat yarn loop and the fiber yarn loop are arranged alternately every two or more stitches.
 4. The wiping member of claim 1, wherein the flat yarn loops and fiber yarn loops are arranged uniformly and regularly throughout a surface of the wiping member.
 5. The wiping member of claim 1, wherein the loops of knitted flat yarn form a plurality of bent parts arranged uniformly and regularly throughout a surface of the wiping member.
 6. The wiping member of claim 5, wherein the bent parts project from the surface of the wiping member at an angle greater than zero degrees and less than 90 degrees.
 7. The wiping member of claim 6, wherein the bent parts project from the surface of the wiping member at an angle of 45 degrees.
 8. The wiping member of claim 5, further comprising open parts between the bent parts of the flat yarn and the surface of the knitted cloth.
 9. The wiping member of claim 1, wherein the flat yarn is a plastic film.
 10. The wiping member of claim 1, wherein the fiber yarn is an acrylic yarn.
 11. The wiping member of claim 10, wherein the acrylic yarn is a wet spun yarn.
 12. The wiping member of claim 1, wherein the fiber yarn is made of ultrafine fibers having a heteromorphous cross section.
 13. A washing article comprising: a wiping member comprising a flat yarn and a fiber yarn, wherein the flat yarn and fiber yarn are knitted together to form alternate separate loops of flat yarn and fiber yarn; an absorbent cleaning material adjacent the wiping member.
 14. The washing article of claim 13, wherein the absorbent cleaning material is mechanically secured to the wiping member.
 15. The washing article of claim 14, wherein the absorbent cleaning material is laminated to the wiping member.
 16. The washing article of claim 13, wherein the absorbent cleaning material is contained within a pocket of the wiping member. 